UK Adspend Passed £19 Billion In 2006

New figures from the Advertising Association (AA) reveal that advertising expenditure in the UK passed £19 billion in 2006.

According to the AA figures, the press accounted for by far the largest share of total advertising expenditure (43.7%), with television the second largest medium (24.1%), followed by direct mail (12.2%), internet (10.6%), outdoor (5.7%), radio (2.8%) and cinema (1.0%).

In terms of display advertising only (calculated by removing classified advertising expenditure from the figures and counting all internet search advertising as classified advertising), television was the biggest medium with a 34.1% share, with the press taking second place (32.0%), followed by direct mail (17.2%), outdoor (8.0%), radio (4.0%), internet (3.4%) and cinema (1.4%).

The press sector as a whole declined by 2.7%, with regional newspapers, consumer magazines and business magazines all suffering decreased levels of adspend last year compared with 2005.

However, not all press sectors saw falls in expenditure, as adspend in directories grew by 3.8% to £1,174 million at current prices, whilst national newspapers rose marginally to £1,914 million.

Broadcast media also suffered with television expenditure falling 4.7% to £4,594 million at current prices – its first annual decline since 2001 – and radio adspend down 7.7% on 2005. Expenditure on direct mail also decreased, down 2.1% to £2,322 million, but cinema advertising remained at £188 million.

The two largest gains in percentage terms were recorded by the outdoor advertising sector, which increased 4.0% to £1,084 million, and the internet. Online rose 47% to £2,016 million, achieving a share of total UK adspend in excess of 10% for the first time.

Recent research from the IAB showed that UK internet advertising expenditure grew 41% in 2006, breaking the £2 billion barrier (see UK Internet Advertising Spend Grows 41%)

The full figures will be published in June in the AA’s Advertising Statistics Yearbook 2007, researched and compiled on its behalf by the World Advertising Research Center (WARC).

Meanwhile, the most recent Bellwether report, for the first quarter of 2007, showed the strongest upward revision of UK marketing spend for three years (see Q1 2007 Bellwether: Marketing Budgets Show Strong Growth).

Advertising Association: 020 7828 2771 www.adassoc.org.uk